Photo: Wikimedia
It looks like there's a trend these days to dig up the past and find out which success companies now have been working for Hitler. Everyone knows the iconic VW Beetle was the Fuhrer's design for the masses and Hugo Boss was responsible for creating those dark Nazi uniforms, but no one bats an eye when purchasing their luxury products now. Not even Audi clients.
Yep, Audi itself recently funded a research to find out more about its past. Sometimes this might turn out to be painful, and the case applies to the automaker here as the study shows the company aided in slaughtering thousands of people.
Dr. Richard Bruhn founded Auto Union in 1932, merging four companies under the four-ringed badge: Zschopauer Motorenwerke J.S. Rasmussen, Horch, Audi and Wanderer. But making automobiles and racing them was only part of what the new company is known for according to what the new study says.
Owning a capable new company that can make all sorts of machines, Dr. Bruhn was named Wehrwirtschaftsfuhrer (military economic leader) at the beginning of the Second World War in 1939.
As a result, Auto Union transformed into an armaments manufacturing company, making tank engines, torpedoes and all sorts of other killing mechanism to power Hitler's war machine.
The company is said to have directly employed over 3,700 war prisoners across seven concentration camps specially built for this purpose. At least a quarter of the prisoners were Jewish.
Moreover, Auto Union wears the “moral responsibility” for the deaths of around 4,500 inmates at Flossenburg, while forcing an additional 16,500 laborers to work in its Chemnitz and Zwickau factories.
In 1945 the killing stopped, Bruhn has been captured along with other tirants and imprisoned. After he has been released, he applied for funds straight from the United States to help revive the four-ringed company. Succeeding, he was awarded with the Grand Cross of Merit by the West German government in 1953 and he died as a “hero” 1964, for creating one of the biggest luxury car brands.
The recently discovered dark facts about Richard Bruhn pushed Audi in changing all data about the company's founder and remove any complimentary phrases used to describe him.
Dr. Richard Bruhn founded Auto Union in 1932, merging four companies under the four-ringed badge: Zschopauer Motorenwerke J.S. Rasmussen, Horch, Audi and Wanderer. But making automobiles and racing them was only part of what the new company is known for according to what the new study says.
Owning a capable new company that can make all sorts of machines, Dr. Bruhn was named Wehrwirtschaftsfuhrer (military economic leader) at the beginning of the Second World War in 1939.
As a result, Auto Union transformed into an armaments manufacturing company, making tank engines, torpedoes and all sorts of other killing mechanism to power Hitler's war machine.
The company is said to have directly employed over 3,700 war prisoners across seven concentration camps specially built for this purpose. At least a quarter of the prisoners were Jewish.
Moreover, Auto Union wears the “moral responsibility” for the deaths of around 4,500 inmates at Flossenburg, while forcing an additional 16,500 laborers to work in its Chemnitz and Zwickau factories.
In 1945 the killing stopped, Bruhn has been captured along with other tirants and imprisoned. After he has been released, he applied for funds straight from the United States to help revive the four-ringed company. Succeeding, he was awarded with the Grand Cross of Merit by the West German government in 1953 and he died as a “hero” 1964, for creating one of the biggest luxury car brands.
The recently discovered dark facts about Richard Bruhn pushed Audi in changing all data about the company's founder and remove any complimentary phrases used to describe him.
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